Opinion: The search for the magnetic monopole & physicists’ obsession with Symmetry

Opinion, Physics / /

At the end of the 19th century, James Clerk Maxwell condensed centuries of work in the study of electricity and magnetism into four eloquent and simple equations. Maxwell’s equations describe electric and magnetic fields as a yin and yang, ebbing and flowing through space. A change in one field creates a swirl in the other, […]

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Breaking records at record pace: How biomechanics have influenced the Olympics

Biology, Physics / /

The world record for the 100 meter dash is 9.58 seconds. A record set by Usain Bolt after beating his own preceding record at the previous Olympic Games. With such impressive records already, it has become onerous to imagine how Olympic records can continue to get broken, yet every round of Olympic events brings a

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How we can avoid polarization in conversations around climate solutions

Environment, Psychology / /

In the scientific community, the consensus on human-caused global warming is almost universal — a recent study from Environmental Research Letters found that more than 99 percent of peer-reviewed papers agreed that humans are causing global warming and climate change. However, among Americans, the belief in anthropogenic climate change is not nearly as strong, with

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Could a “planet-killer” actually make its way towards Earth?: NASA’s real-life approaches to deflecting an asteroid

Space / /

An apocalypse: the end-all-be-all of Earth as we know it. Various pieces of literature and films have attempted to capture the concept, fueling a fear of the end of the world. Suitably, the collapse of society is quite frightening and not easily acceptable. For centuries, humans have tried to rationalize and control this unease through

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Nanoplastics officially cover every part of the Earth

Environment / /

Resting in our polar ice, nanoplastics are a small force about the size of a virus silently contaminating our environment and creating potentially devastating consequences. A team of international scientists set out to measure the precise concentration of nanoplastics in polar ice cores. For the first time, there are figures on the extent to which

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The battle between hot and cold: How TRP channels are involved in temperature transduction in human skin

Biology / /

It’s a great wonder how organisms remain at a constant temperature, despite many outside influences like freezing winds or heat waves. Maintaining proper body temperature is key for most organisms. The temperature-controlling systems in mammals are extremely complex and well-designed, ensuring that they maintain homeostasis. For these animals, the environmental temperature can be sensed by

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